GOV.UK Pay

UK government digital payment service providing a REST API for accepting card payments, managing payment links, and processing refunds for government digital services. Built and operated by the Government Digital Service (GDS), GOV.UK Pay enables over 1,500 public sector organisations to take payments securely without managing their own PCI DSS compliance.

GOV.UK Pay publishes 5 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Agreements API, Authorise card payments API, Card payments API, and 2 more. Tagged areas include Payments, Government, UK, Public Sector, and REST.

The GOV.UK Pay catalog on APIs.io includes 2 JSON-LD contexts and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

GOV.UK Pay’s developer surface includes authentication and 3 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

40.2/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 41/100 agent ready Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

AccessFreeSelf serve⚡ Free to try

5 APIs

PaymentsGovernmentUKPublic SectorRESTPCI DSSRefundsRecurring PaymentsWebhooks

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 40.2/100 · thin

Contract Quality 16.2 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 2.2 / 20

Commercial Clarity 7.4 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.0 / 13

Governance 7.0 / 12

Discoverability 7.4 / 10

Agent readiness — 41/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/gov-uk-pay: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 5

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

JSON Schema 46

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Scroll for all 46

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

TrustCenter

TrustCenter

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Source (apis.yml)

name: GOV.UK Pay
description: UK government digital payment service providing a REST API for accepting card payments, managing payment links,
  and processing refunds for government digital services. Built and operated by the Government Digital Service (GDS), GOV.UK
  Pay enables over 1,500 public sector organisations to take payments securely without managing their own PCI DSS compliance.
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: true
  public: false
  label: Free · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/assets/images/govuk-pay-logo.png
tags:
- Payments
- Government
- UK
- Public Sector
- REST
- PCI DSS
- Refunds
- Recurring Payments
- Webhooks
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
url: https://github.com/api-evangelist/gov-uk-pay/blob/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: gov-uk-pay:gov-uk-pay-agreements-api
  name: GOV.UK Pay Agreements API
  description: The Agreements API from GOV.UK Pay — 3 operation(s) for agreements.
  humanURL: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  baseURL: https://publicapi.payments.service.gov.uk/
  tags:
  - Agreements
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/gov-uk-pay-agreements-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/api_reference/#authentication
  - type: Webhooks
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/webhooks/
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/alphagov/pay-publicapi
  - type: StatusPage
    url: https://payments.statuspage.io/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/terms/
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/privacy/
- aid: gov-uk-pay:gov-uk-pay-authorise-card-payments-api
  name: GOV.UK Pay Authorise card payments API
  description: The Authorise card payments API from GOV.UK Pay — 1 operation(s) for authorise card payments.
  humanURL: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  baseURL: https://publicapi.payments.service.gov.uk/
  tags:
  - Authorise card payments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/gov-uk-pay-authorise-card-payments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/api_reference/#authentication
  - type: Webhooks
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/webhooks/
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/alphagov/pay-publicapi
  - type: StatusPage
    url: https://payments.statuspage.io/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/terms/
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/privacy/
- aid: gov-uk-pay:gov-uk-pay-card-payments-api
  name: GOV.UK Pay Card payments API
  description: The Card payments API from GOV.UK Pay — 5 operation(s) for card payments.
  humanURL: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  baseURL: https://publicapi.payments.service.gov.uk/
  tags:
  - Card payments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/gov-uk-pay-card-payments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/api_reference/#authentication
  - type: Webhooks
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/webhooks/
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/alphagov/pay-publicapi
  - type: StatusPage
    url: https://payments.statuspage.io/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/terms/
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/privacy/
- aid: gov-uk-pay:gov-uk-pay-disputes-api
  name: GOV.UK Pay Disputes API
  description: The Disputes API from GOV.UK Pay — 1 operation(s) for disputes.
  humanURL: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  baseURL: https://publicapi.payments.service.gov.uk/
  tags:
  - Disputes
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/gov-uk-pay-disputes-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/api_reference/#authentication
  - type: Webhooks
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/webhooks/
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/alphagov/pay-publicapi
  - type: StatusPage
    url: https://payments.statuspage.io/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/terms/
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/privacy/
- aid: gov-uk-pay:gov-uk-pay-refunding-card-payments-api
  name: GOV.UK Pay Refunding card payments API
  description: The Refunding card payments API from GOV.UK Pay — 3 operation(s) for refunding card payments.
  humanURL: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  baseURL: https://publicapi.payments.service.gov.uk/
  tags:
  - Refunding card payments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/gov-uk-pay-refunding-card-payments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/
  - type: Authentication
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/api_reference/#authentication
  - type: Webhooks
    url: https://docs.payments.service.gov.uk/webhooks/
  - type: RateLimits
    url: rate-limits/rate-limits.yml
  - type: Plans
    url: plans/plans.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/finops.yml
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/alphagov/pay-publicapi
  - type: StatusPage
    url: https://payments.statuspage.io/
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/terms/
  - type: PrivacyPolicy
    url: https://www.payments.service.gov.uk/privacy/
maintainers:
- FN: Government Digital Service
  url: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-digital-service
  email: govuk-pay-support@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/gov-uk-pay-agentic-access.yml
- type: TrustCenter
  url: security/gov-uk-pay-trust-center.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/gov-uk-pay-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/gov-uk-pay-authentication.yml

GOV.UK Pay

APIs 5

Pricing Plans 1

FinOps 1

Semantic Vocabularies 2

Spectral Rules 1

JSON Schema 46

Security Posture 3

Agentic Access 1

Agent Surfaces 1

Access & Security 3

Source (apis.yml)